ABSTRACT
This chapter considers three movements: the one from the Clarinet Quintet and it has the least connection to the minuet/scherzo tradition. It is a ternary form, but only barely: part of the first section returns seamlessly at the end of the middle section. The outer sections are a leisurely common-time Andantino, and the middle section is a full albeit brief sonata form. The Andantino and the sonata-form Presto non assai, ma con sentimento share the same thematic material. Due to the presence of varied repetition within the Andantino and the direct thematic connection with the Presto, the movement has the quality of a variation structure, although the disproportionate lengths of the putative variations makes the connection more muted than in the third movement of the Second Symphony. Although Brahms does not notate a tempo proportion in the quintet, it is obviously implied by the seamless integration of material from the Andantino towards the end of the Presto.
